Large “For Sale” signs stick awkwardly out of the grounds of many empty lots across America. People inattentively drive by on a daily basis, jamming to their loud music or instructing their kids to sit down. These signs are ignored by many who have no care in the world about buying an empty lot they know they could do nothing with. Average people see an empty space that would just vacuum the money out of their pockets before it was too late to back out. Only the special people notice these billboards and stop in their tracks. They do not see the emptiness. Ideas of beautiful buildings and extravagant businesses fill their creative minds. Their hands fumble for their expensive iPhones and with shaking fingers they type in the number that is posted in bright red on the large sign. They shake with nervousness and fear. This could possibly be a chance of a life time or the worst mistake they will ever make. The best part is that they do not know what lies ahead; it is part of their job description. They thrill for the chance to make their magnificent ideas come true. By normal citizens, these people are referred to as entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are people who organize and operate a business, or many businesses, and take on dangerous financial risks in order for these businesses to thrive. Entrepreneurs need to have open minds that can think of any ideas that will help a business stand out from all the others. Their ideas need to be new, original, and creative. They need to be able to grasp the sight of thousands and draw people in like a fish on a fishing pole. They need to be the talk of the town and release good products that will have costumers thirsting for more. Though, the first idea an entrepreneur has to think of is if they want to start a franchise or become an independent business owner. Both have many pros and cons but personally, I believe a franchise is the best type to choose. Franchises are present throughout America and can have both positive and negative effects. Franchising is when the government allows a company or business to take part in advertising their products. One positive thing about franchises is that it allows a business to easily expand across the country they are located in. Sometimes, it can even give a business customers from other countries which allows the company to spread across the world instead of staying in their home country. With expansion, franchising also minimizes the risks of growing. Companies with many locations and advertisements can most likely make it into a mall or outlet which would cut the amount of money they would have to pay towards location and building fees. For one, bills for water and electricity would be almost nonexistent because in a mall, the bathrooms are outside of shops and most of the electricity is hooked up together instead of separately so all of the business owners would be pitching in to pay. Another pro about franchising is that because a business is constantly advertised and put in front of the eyes of many people, it allows unemployed citizens to access the idea of working for that business or company. This helps out a business extremely because it gives them the chance to pick and choose the best employees to work for them. They will not be desperate for help and end up accepting everyone for the job. Having choices for employees is best for companies who want to survive and thrive in a country’s economy. The bad thing, though, about having many choices for employees is that the presidents of the companies and other head people do not know who is being hired. The hiring falls down to the managers of every separate store. Most of the time, the president of the company has no idea whether the manager is making good decisions or not. This can cause very many problems when managers of a company are not being closely watched. The bad, small decisions a manager could make like who they hire or how they run the store could cause the downfall of an entire corporation. For example, the Mexican restaurant called Fredricos somehow got a sickness in their food which caused many customers to go to the hospital for months on end. Only one store was reported to have this sickness in their food, though. Because of the uncleanliness of one store out of the entire corporation, many people stopped buying their food and started going to Taco Bell or other Mexican fast-food places. Another negative thing about franchises is that it is major challenge to try and communicate between all the separate locations. The more stores they have, the harder it is for new ideas and product replacement to take place. A new idea like having a major sale towards a certain product or changing the decor of each store is challenging to do when over a hundred stores have to be changed to fit what the idea is asking for. In other words, the process in which a franchise evolves to match the needs of its customers is a much more challenged, drawn-out action. A franchise is very hard to handle in terms of changing to the needs of consumers, but it is much easier to handle financial wise. Owning a small, independent business has the complete opposite pros and cons of a franchise. For example, an independent business does not have to worry about controlling its managers and making sure each store runs the same because in reality, an independent business is an individual store that only has one location. Multiple stores are not placed across a large part of land like franchises are. The good thing about an independent business is that it is one-of-a-kind. Customers can only go to one store to get the products that an independent business sells. This can be a pro and con because only customers in the surrounding region of where the business is located can be influenced by their products. Most likely, people in other cities and/or countries would not even know the business existed; therefore offering the independent store not as many customers as large corporations would have. Another positive aspect of owning an independent business is that it is a fresh start. The entrepreneur who is creating the business can go any which way they want with their ideas. They do not have to follow a guideline or listen to a boss tell them what they can and cannot do. The future of the independent store would depend on the entrepreneur’s ability to create new and original ideas. This can be a lot of pressure to put on one person, especially when large amounts of money are involved. A con about owning an individual store is that financial problems occur much more frequently. When they do occur, they are more of a concern because of how small the business is. Usually, an independent business does not have anyone else to lay back on when they need help. Financial aid can really only be found at a bank and even then, banks are very picky with who they choose to help. If a business is too far in debt, a bank will not give them loans to help them get back into the world of making money. Also, an independent business can be a huge stress to put on the back of one person. If the business is sued for whatever reason, the blame falls on only one individual. For a single human-being, this is a lot of stress and responsibility to take on. No one would be able to help them or back up their claims towards being not guilty. Even though an independent business has some pros, like being able to control its’ managers and having one-of-a-kind products, it still has many more negative aspects. Because of the amount of negative aspects an individual business has, I believe that owning a franchise is much smarter and financially efficient. Over a course of a few years, a significant amount of money can be made by owning a franchise rather than an independent business. Yes, an individual store is easier to run rather than multiple ones across a vast amount of land, but the stress that comes with it does not make it worth the trouble. The good thing about owning a large franchise is that there are more employees to help when a business begins to have struggles. The responsibility is not just put on one person, but on many individuals. Plus, if the corporation was sued then many people would be able to back up the business and it would stand more of a chance in court. An independent business would rarely make it through the court case because usually only a few people would be on its’ side. Another good thing about a franchise that an independent business does not have is the fact that there are many other corporations out there to help an entrepreneur decide what would be best for their business. For instance, we humans see commercials on the television almost every day. By reviewing the commercials of large, well-known corporations, this would help a new growing franchise see what they would need to do to make their future business be just as successful. With a small, independent one, there is nothing to really base the business off of. An entrepreneur would just have to take a shot in the dark and hope things turned out the way they imagined. All in all, a franchise is the way to go. It has many more positives than negatives, especially when concerning independent businesses as well. When an entrepreneur first sees that empty lot of land and ideas start pouring throughout their head like running water, the first decision they need to decide is whether they want their new business to be a franchise or independent. This decision can be quite hard because both types have very many pros and cons but I personally believe that a franchise is the best way to go. A business can have many financial problems, especially when starting out. With a franchise, more money can be made in a shorter time than an independent business can make. Even though, an individual business allows for the actions of employees to be watched closely and changed when need be. A franchise is hard to change because there are so many stores to watch and make sure run correctly. Most of the time, the original owner would have no idea what problems were occurring in their stores where as in a single, independent store, the owner would have full control and view over all the actions of the employees. They would be able to see threats beforehand that could possibly end their business and extinguish them before they were grown into a much greater problem. Either way, I believe both types of businesses are important to American society. If all we had were large franchises or independent businesses and not a mixture of both, then America would not have evolved as much as it has. We have grown beyond imagination and exceeded in finding things people never thought would be found. Even if we do not see it, independent businesses help create a differentiation of products throughout society. Also, without franchises, we would never be able to have brand names and other popular stores so in the end, both are just as important as the other. America has grown having both franchises and independent businesses as a part of their economy and hopefully will continue to grow with both types still present.

 

Works Cited

Shane, Scott. “The Pros and Cons of Franchising Your Business.” Entrepreneur. N.p., 7 May 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226489>

Kaneko, Hiro. “Starting A Small Business: The Pros and Cons of Being an Entrepreneur.” HubPages. N.p., 2 Nov. 2009. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. <http://hirokaneko.hubpages.com/hub/Starting-A-Small-Business-The-Pros-and-Cons-of-Being-an-Entrepreneur>

Shane, Scott. “The Pros and Cons of Franchising Your Business.” Entrepreneur. N.p., 7 May 2013. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. <http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226489>.